Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Flashback to the 90s!

I'm fairly certain Taco Bell still offers Mexican pizzas on their menu. But I haven't had one since the 1990s, so for me, this is a very 90s recipe. I used to order Mexican pizzas with no meat — just beans, cheese, the fried tortillas, olives, tomatoes, and green onions. That was my favorite menu item.

Now, as you probably know, Taco Bell has a number of veganizable items on the menu these days. The Black Bean Burrito is vegan when ordered fresca style (they even use vegetarian chicken flavor in the beans!), and the good ole refried Bean Burrito Fresca is vegan. The Seven-Layer Burrito (minus the cheese and sour cream) is vegan. Plus, they have those fancy new Cantina Bowls (the black bean flavor is vegan if you leave off the cilantro dressing).

Anyway, all that is to say, you won't starve as a vegan at Taco Bell. But the Mexican pizza ordered vegan-style would just be beans on a tortilla with some sad veggies falling off the top because there'd be no melted cheese to hold them on. Enter the vegan Mexican Pizza:

I created this for my latest cookbook project, Vintage Vegan (which highlights veganized versions of trendy foods from the past century). I don't know when Taco Bell began offering Mexican pizzas, but I do know that fusion cuisine was hot, hot, hot in the 90s. So I'll include this in the 1990s chapter.

It's a simple concept — two multi-grain tortillas stuffed with refried beans and enchilada sauce, then topped with more enchilada sauce, Daiya pepperjack cheese, olives, tomatoes, and green onions. The only thing homemade is the enchilada sauce, which I'll include a recipe for in the book. But if you're feelin' lazy or pressed for time, a jarred enchilada sauce would do just fine.

On the side, I made some Jalapeno Hominy from Cookin' Crunk:

It's also very simple. Canned hominy is fried up in Earth Balance with some fresh, chopped jalapeno. I added a habanero for extra spice though.

On a side note, my blogger friend Rick, formerly at the Health Sleuth, is now blogging at the Health Sensei. Rick is all about uber-healthy eating and investigating health claims (his recent posts have tackled the agave controversy and whether or not synthetic or natural vitamin sources are best). Check it out!